Secular Hedonism

Hedonism is a philosophy based on the self-centered pursuit of personal pleasure and happiness. It is the major philosophical system that dictates and dominates the cultural lifestyles of the majority of unconverted Americans today. America’s culture today is saturated by carnal hedonistic aspirations, cravings and desires.

Throughout the inerrant Scriptures, hedonism is portrayed as an evil pursuit that God universally condemns (Prov. 21:17, Luke 8:14, II Tim. 3:4, Heb. 11:25). The ancient form of hedonism in the first century world was called Epicureanism, a sensually based system that Paul particularly confronted in Acts chapter 17 in Athens. Epicurus, its founder, believed that "pleasure was derived from the satisfaction of desires and needs." Epicureanism was nothing less than an ancient form of modern materialism, where the pleasing of the human senses becomes the highest value.

The Deceptive "Christianized" Form

As with all evil systems, Satan has produced a form of "Christianized" hedonism to con professing Christians into accepting his religious version of this diabolical scheme. The major evangelical promoter of this "Christian Hedonism" is a popular New-Evangelical Minnesota preacher by the name of Dr. John Piper. In the Nov. 2004 issue of the Straightway magazine, Dr. H. T. Spence presented a potent succinct expose of this unscriptural philosophy in a seven page article entitled "The Pied Piper of Christian Hedonism."

Piper has authored three books in which he describes his so-called "Christian Hedonism": Desiring God, Meditation of a Christian Hedonist, and The Dangerous Duty of Delight. Piper says that God is a hedonist because God is supposedly always motivated by what brings pleasure. As with all erroneous teaching, Piper takes a legitimate Scriptural truth (Rev. 4:11), then distorts and twists it to fit his erroneous concepts. Spence states that "Piper believes that God is happy all the time no matter what takes place on the earth."

In his expose, Dr. Spence notes that this fallacy contradicts God’s statement in Ezekiel 18:25: "Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?" Spence notes that this passage "indicates that God does not have pleasure that the wicked should die" in his sins, and that the Word of God clearly indicates, that there are some things with which God is not happy.

John Piper’s Unbiblical Distortion

Piper perverts sound Biblical doctrine when he states in Desiring God "Unless a man be born again into a Christian hedonism he cannot see the kingdom of God." (p. 55) Piper also distorts plain Biblical truth with a suggested re-rendering of Scripture as follows: "Could it be that today the most straightforward biblical command for conversion is not ‘believe in the Lord’" but "delight yourself in the Lord." (Ibid, p 55)

According to Spence, Piper in his book Desiring God "proposes that a hedonistic value system become the superlative determining factor in living the Christian life." The chief goal of the Christian is not glorifying God, but pursuing the pleasure saints receive in glorifying God. (p. 15) Christian hedonism thus shifts the emphasis from God to man, making the primary goal the secondary aim, and the secondary result the prime goal.

Spence believes that Piper is wrong because Piper has "taken secondary truth and made it greater than God himself." God himself, not the pleasure we derive from God, must always be the believer’s chief end. In this writer’s observation, Piper places happiness above holiness, a severe mistake. Happiness flows from holiness, not vice versa.

The Biblical Corrective

For believers, the major thrust should not be human happiness, but divine holiness (I Peter 1:15-16). Saints who make the glorification of God their chief aim (I Cor. 6:19-20) via a life of holiness (II Cor. 7:1) and submission to the will of God (Rom. 12:1-2) will fully enjoy the divine pleasures that freely flow from the right hand of God in Christ (Ps. 16:11).

Like Dr. Spence states in his conclusion, this writer believes that if Christian hedonism is followed in its natural sequences, it will produce an antinomianism, a live as you please lifestyle that defies Scriptural boundaries and caters to the carnal world rather than to the Christ centered Word.

Unfortunately, many professing Fundamental Baptist pastors are becoming enamored with this Minnesota based "Pied Piper of Hedonism." They are quoting him, promoting him and are inculcating their congregations with this "piper’s" erroneous and subtle unscriptural "pleasure driven" teachings that help lead to carnal lifestyles among their sheep. Perceptive saints should avoid this latest distorted New-Evangelical "fad," sticking with the sound doctrine of the Word (Titus 1:9).

Resources consulted: (a) "The Pied Piper of Christian Hedonism," Dr. H. T. Spence, Straightway, Nov. 2004; (b) George Shafer, "Yeoman: Are You an Epicuriean?"; The Lifeline, Dec. 2000, pp. 18-19; (c) The Holy Scriptures, KJV.

April-May 2007 The Fundamentalist Digest; Permission granted for reprint, so long as proper credit is given. The above item is a sample of the numerous timely articles that are contained in the bi-monthly issues of The Fundamentalist Digest